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Formed in 2003, HolyCow is a full service visual communications agency that brings business ideas to life using a combination of animation, motion graphics and video. Whether the business objective is to get customers buying or employees inspired,we translate information into meaningful visuals that engages and persuades audiences.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

I love this from the team at Duarte. These guys are pure genius. Everything they do speaks their brand, their passion and their expertise. Look at how they tied it all together with some festive cheer. Click here.

A client made a comment the other day that got me thinking. More than thinking in fact. It got me fired up to start expressing myself on the power of visual communication in business. I think there’s a lot to be said that business people need to know about.

It’s the end of the year, I know, and most of my colleagues and clients are by now either sunning themselves or at least preparing to, but I’ve still got some stuff to share so that I can free my mind to absorb some light hearted fictional reading material over the holidays.

Welcome to our blog!

The comment made by my client was that his customers have forgotten his company’s PowerPoint presentation within ten minutes of seeing it. I diplomatically told him that he was lucky they had remembered it for that long - and that’s not because it was a bad presentation. It actually ranked quite highly compared to some that I’ve seen – and I told him that too.

So, why then, he asked, was his audience not retaining the information? Well, there is no ‘one size fits all’ response to this question (and I intend to cover these different variables in upcoming posts) but in that situation, it was a clear example of too much text, too much talking. It’s hard work for an audience to read a text-heavy presentation and be expected to pay attention to a speaker at the same time. Simply by the way we are wired, the audience will choose either to read or to listen and neither are effective on their own as far as retention of information goes.

I proceeded to explain to my client, who was looking more bewildered as I spoke (with the realisation that his presentations over the past ten years had made little impact) that had his presentation included less text and more visuals, his customers would have found it far easier to pay attention to and remember what he was saying.

As I explained how visuals enable our brains to create meaning and remember concepts, my client’s frown turned the other way as he digested the simplicity of my rationale.

Appropriate visuals such as imagery, animation or iconography require very little processing. This is why audiences remember and retain a lot more of what they see as opposed to what they hear. In fact, studies have shown that people only remember 10% of what they hear, 30% of what they read, but about 80% of what they see and do.

And that’s why I’m so passionate about why I do.

Communication that uses great visuals has the ability to change people, to persuade them, to move them, to inspire them. And yet this potential is generally overlooked in the day-to-day business environment.

Meetings, conferences, keynote addresses, roadshows, launches and presentations continue to take place day in and day out leaving audiences unmoved.

Sure, it’s not only about the visuals – if the content is rubbish then there’s no point in making it visually meaningful - but assuming the information is valuable, without visuals to tell its story and bring it life, the content will not resonate with an audience, let alone get them to act.

Looking forward to sharing with you, connecting with you and collaborating with you. Here’s to making an impact in 2011!

Testimonials

"What a great concept. Anything that can turn a PowerPoint presentation into something more than just prompt notes on a screen would get my vote."

Chris MoerdykMarketing Analyst, Advisor and Media Commentator

"The ability for HolyCow to completely understand the fundamentals of our objectives and to translate these into a powerful vision is extraordinary. The massive impact of consolidated views, thoughts, images that Holy Cow has brought to life is incredible.

The end result of the product really did capture the true essence of our beliefs and what we stand for.

HOLY COW! That’s all I can say!"

Sheryll SukhooHPBI Program Co-ordinatorHewlett Packard South Africa

"We found HolyCow to be innovative and dynamic. The end product was incredibly professional and well presented. We are proud to be associated with HolyCow and look forward to future involvement."

"After nervously giving you guys the go-ahead on your MoodSetter product, I am very pleased to say the following: - it has been the best marketing money WE HAVE EVER SPENT! I will be contacting you shortly to brief in the next one!"

Isabel de MouraAbsa Investments: Linked Products

"We have had the great fortune to be on the receiving end of a range of professional services from the HolyCow team for over two years - from compilations of world-class marketing material for a McDonald’s Worldwide Convention display in the US to the complete design of our stunning website www.blu-prints.com.

Under conventional circumstances within in their creative industry, when considering their one-of-a-kind quality delivery, one would expect their talents to go to their heads. But they have remained firmly grounded as respectful mortals and just good space to deal with – Always."

Guy Martin

Managing Director

Bluprints™

"Just a quick note to thank you for your contribution to our national sales conference. The animation which you put together for us opened and closed the conference on the perfect note! Everyone was thoroughly impressed and we are still getting requests for copies. We look forward to working more closely with you in the future."

Nadine Kennedy Johnston

Absa AIMS; Head: Business Development

"I commissioned HolyCow on behalf of Hewlett-Packard to produce a series of promotional videos for the HP Business Institute, a large-scale enterprise development program that was launched by HP in 2007. Whilst the program’s mission is seemingly simple – to build capacity in the local ICT sector and grow the pool of skilled ICT resources – conveying this message in a succinct and powerful manner proves to be more challenging. The brief was to produce three videos that would capture the essence and spirit of the program in a way that only a visual medium like video can.

From the start of the project through to the end, HolyCow displayed an amazing creative energy and commitment to this project, which resulted in a product that can be summed up in one word: WOW! Whether used internally or externally to introduce the program to various stakeholders, including new recruits, the videos are achieving exactly what we set out to.

This is my second project with HolyCow and I hope to work with them in the not too distant future – it is always a pleasure as I know they will deliver beyond my expectations!

Thank you HolyCow!”

Jacques-Philip Hansen

Marketing Communications Lead: HP Business Institute

NetPartnering South Africa

"MagMinerals Inc. have retained the HolyCow Production Team to produce continuous coverage concerning the implementation of our Greenfield Kouilou Potash Project near Mengo, 25 km north east of the city of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo (Capital Brazzaville). The HolyCow team will accompany MagMinerals’ potash project from current pre-financial close activities (e.g.. drilling, ESIA activities) until the end of construction which is expected to occur towards the end of 2012.

For the first two footages HolyCow have provided excellent work with exceptional and outstanding results. The team we worked with is very professional and authentic. The crew is fun to work with but most importantly excels by trying to absorb and comprehend MagMinerals’ objectives. This knowledge then gets transferred into the respective film coverage. We are more than happy with HolyCow Production’s performance and accountability and look forward to have them accompany our project."